Canadian Occupational Safety

April/May 2015 17 "Nothing really breaks during the nice weather; it always seems to beak during the bad, windy weather," says Manes. "Our weather patterns seem to be getting more severe than they were in the past. There seems to be more of them and they come in and hit really hard like microbursts. It's a very large portion of our profession." One of the most concerning elements of a storm is high winds because they can strain utility infrastructure, such as lines and poles, and create additional hazards when working on the distribution system. "The lines can break and they can move, so if a worker is up in a bucket on a bucket truck, they are in a specific location and have put controls in place for that location; they don't really want significant changes," says Brendan McCracken, safety and training co-ordinator at Peterborough Utilities Group in Ontario. "And the wind can knock tree branches down on lines when they're working on them." The heavy wind can make it difficult for workers to complete tasks such as restringing wire from pole to pole. Workers must follow manufacturer instructions and specifications to determine maximum permitted wind speed during operation of devices used for lifting people or objects. Supervisors and workers must use their own experience and local weather reports to determine when the wind has become too hazardous to continue work. If there are hurricane-force winds, for example, utility workers will not be out as it is too dangerous. They will typically wait and start recovery efforts once the winds have abated, says John Sprackett, chief of staff for the Power Workers' Union in Toronto. Ice storms are also a problem. In December 2013, an ice storm hit the Greater Toronto Area that left 300,000 customers without power in the city alone. During an ice storm, the tree branches often have difficulty accommodating the weight of the ice and many of them will break, falling onto power lines and knocking the power out. Ice can also accumulate on electrical equipment, causing conductors and poles to break. One particular risk during an ice storm for utility workers is backfeed from generators or solar panels. This can put the workers at risk of electrocution when they go to restore the grid. Communication is also an issue. Peterborough Utilities Group works hard to ensure "everyone is on the same page" and there is constant communication between the field workers and the control room. Workers are given ice cleats to put over their boots to prevent slips, trips and falls. The trucks are equipped with a sand and salt mixture when work needs to be done in icy areas. When it comes to snowstorms, one of the biggest hazards are road conditions. "You have large, rural areas that can be affected by white-out conditions, and trying to get to the work location where the line is down or where the tree has fallen on the line can be very hazardous," says Sprackett. "The industry has many serious accidents and fatalities due to accidents on the highway in tough conditions." One of the main safety focuses at Peterborough Utilities Group this year is driving. The utility offers training on defensive and winter driving, and workers are taking their driving very seriously, says John Dale, power line maintainer and electrical joint health and safety committee representative at Peterborough Utilities Group. When utility workers are doing repairs on the side of the road during a snowstorm, the other drivers pose a significant risk. There have been situations in the industry where other drivers have run into the hydro trucks and injured or killed workers. "There are barriers and identifiers and flashing lights — everything possible is done to make sure drivers are aware of people working there," says Sprackett. "But the conditions can come on suddenly and create road hazards." During the winter storms, there are concerns about cold-related injuries, such as frost nip, frostbite and hypothermia. Peterborough Utilities Group's corporate practice on adverse weather conditions outlines the signs and symptoms of cold- related injuries and the measures to take to protect against the hazards. "They would get information on what to look for in other workers — frost nip, extreme wind, extreme cold, lightning — so everyone is familiar with what the corporate practice is indicating to follow," says McCracken. Thunder and lightning storms are another concern for utility companies. Lightning is a big risk and if it is in the vicinity of workers, the crew stops work and doesn't continue until 30 minutes after the last strike. "It's an electrocution hazard. You are working on things intended to conduct electricity and we create safe work zones with grounding and rubber glove techniques and live line tools but you wouldn't want something out of the blue. You think it's in a certain electrical state and you don't want it changing due to lightning," says McCracken. Not to mention the rule of thumb for lightning is you don't want to be the highest point — and these workers are often up in the air, he adds. The Electrical Utility Safety Rules, published by Ontario's IHSA and designed for Hydro One and its subsidiaries, specifically states "all work on or near apparatus where a lightning strike may cause personal injury will be suspended immediately whenever deemed to be unsafe by the on-site supervisor/worker." There is also the risk of lightning hitting the wire nowhere near where the technicians are working but travelling down the line to them, says Dale. Most utility companies have very good connections to weather specialists to determine when it is safe for their workers to go out, says Sprackett. "Some of them have their own radar tracking system and they won't stage Weathering

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